Women’s League Told World War Not Inevitable

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 14

Women’s League Told World War Not Inevitable

WASHINGTON. May 3. A new world war is not inevitable, Miss Gertrude Baer, of Geneva, Switzerland, International League fo r Peace and Freedom, told the United States section of the league at its annual meeting here, states the Christian Science Monitor. Miss Baer made a vigorous plea for American support of the few remaining democracies in Europe. She was confi dent that if the “ardent desires of the masses for peace” can be made vocal, war will be avoided. A “slight relax ing” of political tension in Europe in the last two months was reported- “ Our duty,” she told the women, “is to watch that Spain does not become a second Ethiopia, for the fate or Spain is the fate of Europe.” Again she declared, “Only if democratic forces of the world stand firmly by Czechoslovakia, the last island of democracy in that part of Europe, will it be able to survive.” The American neutrality law, Miss Baer reported, is being interpreted Jn Europe as indicative of a growing lack of interest in European problems. She urged that the United States accom pany its law with a declaration that H will unite with anti-Fascist forces in Europe. Political isolation for one state will prove as impossible in the long run as attempts at self-sufficiency, Miss Baer added. Continuance in League She made a plea for continuance of the League of Nations, declaring that if it wero disbanded anarchy would follow with fascist nations free to annex any territory they saw fit. Describing efforts of the League to establish co-operation and friendly relations between women of countries whose governments seem to be involved in misunderstanding, Miss Baer told of special projects on the Polish-Czech, Hungarian-Czcoh, and on BulgarianHungarian frontiers. Much “courage, tact and discretion” is necessary, she

pointed out, ns some governments have already stopped pacifist activities and others are likely to at any time. Reporting on a newly stressed phase of the League’s activities, Mrs Eleanor Fowler told how members have recently been joining picket lines and supplying strikers with food and clothing to Aid. them where their demands for improved wages and working conditions appear justified. This phase of the League’s activity is ndw organised in 18 cities. “Unless we have social and economic justico at home, wo can't expect to have international peace,'' Mrs Fowler declared. In the absence from the city both the President and Mrs Roosevelt, the derogates were received at a White House garden party by Mrs James Roosevelt, the President’s daughter-in-law.